Friday, August 15, 2008
Rhythm and Blues
Jerry Wexler, a giant in the music business and the man who coined the term "Rhythm and Blues" (which had previously, and this is no joke, been known as "Race Music") died today. To commemorate the occasion, here's another video I made from last weekend's San Jose Jazz Festival. In it, James Hunter and his band perform one of the earliest R&B songs, "Baby Don't Do It" by the Five Royals (or "Royales"), which was #1 on the R&B charts in January, 1953, the year that Wexler joined Ahmet Ertegun at Atlantic Records.
If you haven't seen Atlantic Records: The House That Ahmet Built, and you like music, it's a must-see film.
